LROC news and images |
LROC news and images |
Guest_Zvezdichko_* |
Jun 19 2009, 11:25 AM
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#1
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Guests |
I know it may be too early for such a thread, but an announcement has to be made.
The official website of the LROC camera is: http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/ A brief description plus status is available here: http://www.msss.com/lro/lroc/index.html |
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Jul 15 2009, 01:14 AM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
I don't think anyone has ever anticipated finding glaciers of white ice just sitting in the bottoms of polar lunar craters. Exposed ice would sublimate quite quickly when exposed to the vacuum.
Instead, I believe the expectation is to find an "icy regolith" layer (something like a permafrost layer) underneath a completely dry layer of regolith. The minute gaps between the grains of the covering regolith cap would be enough for the tiny amount of sublimation that results in the hydrogen signature detected by Clementine and Lunar Prospector. -the other Doug -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain
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Jul 15 2009, 02:00 AM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1465 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Columbus OH USA Member No.: 13 |
I don't think anyone has ever anticipated finding glaciers of white ice just sitting in the bottoms of polar lunar craters. Exposed ice would sublimate quite quickly when exposed to the vacuum. Instead, I believe the expectation is to find an "icy regolith" layer (something like a permafrost layer) underneath a completely dry layer of regolith. When the Lunar Prospector announcement was made the figure of "1% water" or something like that was given, which added up to a lake's worth if the total input is a gazillion tons or whatever. Later it was pointed out that hard concrete has a similar amount of water, so extracting drinking water seemed less plausible. Let's hope the figure is quite a bit above that! BTW, according to the materials for the LAMP instrument: QUOTE The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) is a UV spectrograph designed to address how water is formed on the moon, transported through the lunar atmosphere, and deposited in permanently shaded regions (PSRs). Its main objectives are to 1) identify exposed water frost in PSRs, 2) characterize landforms and albedos in PSRs, 3) demonstrate the feasibility of using natural starlight and sky-glow illumination for future lunar surface mission applications, and 4) assay the lunar atmosphere and its variability. The production and transport of lunar atmosphere constituents (e.g., H, Ar, and potentially others) will be investigated by observation of their resonantly scattered FUV emissions. LAMP albedo maps of PSR landforms and potential surface water ice will be used to investigate the intriguing processes that occur within PSRs. Potential sites of active outgassing such as the Aristarchus crater and the Ina structure are targets of special interest for LAMP spectral map products. Would that imply that LAMP is only suited for detecting surface ice/frost? -------------------- |
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